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Environment Statistics

Please note that Scottish Environment Statistics Online database and Key Scottish Environment Statistics are no longer updated as of 30 September 2017. The decision to stop making updates was made following a user consultation. Further details, including the consultation paper and a user survey, are available here .

This section provides Environment statistics for Scotland together with commentary, metadata and links to sources of additional information. The Scottish Government collects few statistics on the environment, but does collate and publish statistics from various other sources.

Scottish Environment News - provides updates to the work of the environment statistics branch and links to wider data releases and publications.

Statistics Topic

Featured High Level Trend

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

There are two measures of greenhouse gases:

SOURCE EMISSIONS. These are a measure of the actual emissions or removals in Scotland They include international aviation and shipping and are used for UK and international comparisons. In 2016, Scottish emissions of the basket of seven greenhouse gases are estimated to be 38.6 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e). This is 10.3 per cent lower than the 2015 figure of 43.0 MtCO2e, a 4.4 MtCO2e decrease.

ADJUSTED EMISSIONS. These emissions are adjusted to account for Scotland's participation in EU-wide emissions trading. Adjusted emissions are used to measure progress against targets. When emissions are adjusted to take account of trading in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), emissions increased by 2.5 per cent between 2015 and 2016 (from 40.5 MtCO2e to 41.5 MtCO2e). Compared with the Baseline Period, emissions in 2016 were 45.2 per cent lower.